


Reflection

by vase



Series: Revelations [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Discussions of discrimination and prejudice, Eavesdropping, F/F, Gen, Grieving, The White Fang, debates, faunus, focal point pairing, mentions of discrimination & prejudice, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 08:31:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13655295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vase/pseuds/vase
Summary: Wracked with uncertainty after listening in on her parents argument, Blake finds herself sneaking in through the window to her parents room, mind awhirl with questions and fears.





	Reflection

The shock of her parents argument hadn't been quick to wear off.

The churning discomfort in her gut was at war with her curiosity and sheer frustration at how much they had tried to keep from her. But above all else, there was worry. Blake felt torn as she snuck across the roof, shooting glances between the study and where she knew her parents bedroom was.

Who do I go to? Do I just leave them alone? Who needs someone there more?

In the end, the decision was made for her. She heard Saber entering the study and begin a grumbled conversation with her father.

I don’t want to start another argument with Saber, not after he was such a pain about Ilia.

With that in mind, Blake flickered across the dark tiled roof and flung herself off the side. She spun around at the last second, flying off the edge. Swinging her legs down and inward, she came to a swift and near silent landing atop her parents windowsill.

Her mother shot up from the purple bedspread she’d been curled up on. Ears pressed to her head and teeth bared as she reached into her sleeves only to freeze at the sight of her.

“Blake?” She spoke with a faint crack in her voice. Golden, bloodshot eyes refused to meet her own and her normal complexion was puffy from the tears, her hair looking frazzled.

“Mum I-” What could she say? What did she need to say? The art of comfort was one she’d become unfamiliar with under Adams tutelage.

“You heard everything, didn’t you?” Kali sighed head hanging low as her whole body seemed to shrink up on itself.

Biting back feeble words and worries, Blake kicked off from the windowsill and circled around the bed until she was at her mother's side. She plopped down next to the smaller woman and drew her into a tight hug, like the one, Kali had welcomed her home with.

“I did and, I’m sorry,” Blake said, each word halting in her uncertainty, as she nuzzled against her mother. “I think I picked up some bad habits from a classmate,” she tried to joke.

A sigh of relief escaping her when her mothers frame rumbled with a low purr before she weakly returned the hug.

They stayed like that for a time. The yawning chasm of silence that consumed the room punctuated only by Blake’s own faint breaths and her mothers faint sniffles. Blake didn’t know how long they were there for, but the right side of her top was damp by the time her mother pulled away and sent her a fragile smile.

Dragging her sleeve across her face, Kali said, “Thank you dear." She hiccuped, “I should probably tell you off for listening in but I’ve hardly set a good example on that front, have I?”

“You were just worried,” Blake mumbled, ears still pressed to her head. She looked at her mother with a restrained intensity. A thousand questions on the tip of her tongue but each one choked back by how the older woman seemed to shake like a leaf.

Her mother though, wasn’t one for indulging uncertainty.

With a wispy sniff, she said, “I imagine you have some questions, sweetie?”

“Its fine, I… I just want you to feel better,” Blake said. Awkwardly patting the other woman’s hand and grimacing at the tension she felt running through her frame. She’s still trying to hide it.

Faster than Blake’s distracted mind could follow, Kali flipped her hand up and intertwined their fingers. Snorting she said, “Blake, I think you deserve to know. Besides, getting some of this off my chest might be good for me, you should try it sometime.”

“I do… occasionally,” Blake said, refusing to meet her mother's gaze.

“I mean when a friend hasn’t just been stabbed,” her mother retorted, before her grip tightened. “You’ve chosen a dangerous life, all of your team has, and you won’t always be together, or get peaceful moments like this. If you have something to say to them, even if its hard or confusing,” she trailed off for a moment before shaking her head.

“Then you should say it, or put your feelings into action. Because no matter how much you don’t want it you're also going to have to resolve yourself to the fact they may die, or disappear. And then you will never get that chance.”

Ironic, that she should be getting the advice she’d wanted when all she wanted to do was help her mother.

Nodding, Blake said, “Does it… Did it help you?”

Kali sighed and her sweaty palm tightened its hold on Blake’s own for a moment. “It does, a little. You need to be ready for it, to acknowledge the danger your loved ones have chosen to put themselves in and decide if you can really handle and if not… What you will do then.” She closed her eyes and sighed, “I made my choice, and I don’t regret it, no matter how much it hurts. I just need to cry and scream a bit.”

“Is that what you were doing with dad?” Blake asked quietly.

Her mother stilled and looked away before answering. “No,” her tone was tight and bitter. “That’s been building for since we got here. We did a good thing in stopping Adam, but that doesn’t mean everything that’s happening now is good. Weeds can spring up in healthy soil as well as bad after all.”

Blake nodded, accepting her mother's words, even if they left her frowning and her chest tight.

“Does that mean you don’t believe in what we’re doing?”

Kali shook her head and sighed, “That’s a complicated question sweetheart and I don’t think I actually have an answer for you… Not a satisfying one anyway.”

Blake’s shoulders shook for a moment and she saw her mothers worried gaze flick to her before she could still them. Licking her lips, Blake floundered and asked the first thing that came to her head.

“Do you think we should be fighting? Hurting people, killing people? Maybe Sienna and Adam are different,” she stalled at the sour look that spread across her mother's gentle features. "They are different," she corrected. "But… She still hurt people, Weiss lost family because of her, Adam was able to get to where he was because we used violence and he was good at it. Are you really willing to hurt people?”

Her mother did not freeze, nor did she looked shocked, or even to be struggling with the question. Instead her gaze sharpened for a moment, looking almost suspiciously bemused as she arched an eyebrow. But that quickly melted into a softer, more gentle look as she slid closer to Blake and leaned against her. Head on her shoulder, Kali brought Blake’s hand up in front of them and spoke.

“Blake, you’re a Huntress, so tell me,” she started plainly. “If you saw someone doing something wrong, you would stop them, wouldn’t you? Like mugging someone.”

“Yes.”

“And you’d do the same if a large group of people were hurting another, like a gang or an army, you’d defend those who couldn’t defend themselves.”

Blake nodded, a frown maring her features as she flexed her fingers, knowing where her mother was going.

“Now what if the people doing the hurting had made it legal? Like how in some towns its OK to beat one’s children's as savagely as they like? What wins out, respect for local customs, or your own sense of morality?”

“Sienna wasn’t a huntress though, no one in the White Fang was,” Blake countered quickly.

Kali’s response was swift but not harsh or sharp, like she was trying to be patient. “So she didn’t have a licence to hurt people, does having one make it OK when hunters exploit and attack little hamlets for profit?”

“Of course not, but that’s an entirely different situation.”

“So is whether or not Sienna was a huntress or not, and don’t think I didn’t notice you ducking my question dear.” Something like bemusement touching Kali's tone as she continued, more firmly. “Sienna was chosen to succeed Ghira, she delivered on her promises, to fight back against the human supremacists, to strike back the SDC and Faunus traffickers.”

She shrugged, glancing out the window, “As well as the Governments and institutions that propped them up. Unlike Adam, she was chosen, so if its a mandate like a Hunters you wanted, isn’t that enough? I doubt every village or every person in the world agreed to the Hunter system, so what does some not liking Sienna change?”

“Because she led an army, she… Its like I said, she hurt people. Yes some were guilty but Weiss never did anything wrong.”

"Neither did Ilia or her parents.”

That brought Blake up cold, her teeth digging into her lips in a mixture of frustration and offence.

Sighing, Kali pulled away and said, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have used her as an example. As it stands though, people are being hurt and dying all the time, more often Faunus at the hands of human than not. Sienna didn’t relish in violence, it was never something she enjoyed. She just felt it was her duty to protect her people and that was the best means she had.”

“Then… Do you think I should have kept fighting. That I should fight?” Blake asked with a shudder.

Kali rubbed a soothing circle on her back before flopping back on the bed and sighing. “Of course not dear, I don’t fight anymore because I didn’t want to either. If you're uncomfortable with it, well you should be, violence should never be normal. But if the idea of fighting, even as she did makes you unhappy then don’t,” she shrugged.

Kalis tone was whisper light as she said, “I just don’t think its right to tell others not to. Say what you will, but Sienna never forced anyone to fight, and until recently, your father never tried to stop anyone from doing so. There was balance then, now though…”

Her expression turned rough with a barely restrained snarl as her voice became deeper in an imitation of her father's:

“Politically motivated violence is always to be abhorred. Those who engage in such do nothing but spread misery and will, in time, meet with failure, or a violent end.”

“So that’s what brought this on,” Blake recalled that interview. Reporters and the councilors had asked her fathers opinion on the White Fang’s recent history and the protests against rounding up and arresting White Fang sympathizers.

“It's been building,” Kali countered.

Blake fell back on the bed next to her mother, feeling drained and flat. Like she was being pulled in a hundred directions but never harshly enough for it to hurt. She just felt tired.

“I thought... “ Blake started slowly, her eyes welling up. “I thought we should fight once, but then it just got worse and worse. I hated the idea that the only way to get people to stop pushing us around was to make them too scared to and how it was making us into monsters but... Maybe that was just Adam, but then why did Sienna order us to destroy that train?”

Her mother scoffed, “Don’t be ridiculous, she’d never order something so wasteful. Did she actually give you those orders?”

“Well no. She said to rob it and escape but Adam had charges and wanted to blow it up. Oh,” Blake muttered.

“I think that was all him, though if he had charges he may have had some supporters,” Kali sighed. “That’s the problem isn’t it? Someone like Adam could use Sienna’s ideals to his advantage and do terrible damage. But then the likes of the SDC use your fathers patience to keep exploiting and hurting people. Should we just throw out every system or ideology because someone bad is able to abuse it?”

Blake almost laughed, “There’d be nothing left if we did that.”

“Exactly,” her mother answered, almost sounding pleased as she patted Blake’s side.

“So then.. What do I do? I thought I finally found a path, even if we had to fight our brothers and sisters, it was just temporary and now things would get better, that people would learn and be better.”

Kali shrugged, “Some might, some won’t. Some without the White Fang around will begin lashing out like they did before, some might see the errors of their ways and change for the better. I don’t know the future Blake, neither did Sienna, or Ghira.” She sighed, “We’re just grasping at straws and doing the best we can. All I can say, as your mother, is that if you keep looking to others to give you direction, be it Sienna, your father, let alone someone like Adam, you’ll never be satisfied.”

They lingered in contemplative silence for a time, the grief and tension had bled out of the room, replaced by a weariness.

Blake’s mind tumbled over what she’d been told, somehow always returning to her mother's question to her role as a Huntress. It cast her mind back to her own uncertainty back during Mountain Glenn and about how she’d undo hatred and injustice.

Clasping and unclasping her hand she held up a fist and murmured, ”I’ll keep what you told me in mind, mum, all of it, about my team, and even finding my own path.”

Her mother made a little rumble of approval as she murmured, “Good girl, just be careful won’t you? It doesn’t sound like that Qrow person wanted many of you on this mission to Atlas." Kali held up a hand in a claw strike before letting her arm go limp. “I doubt I would be of much use, and someone has to go back and make sure Menagerie hasn’t burnt down while we’re away.”

Blake rolled over and nuzzled into her mother's side, whispering, “Thank you, for being there for me when I needed you most. I, I want to help you too, if I can.”

Kali gently patted her heads, long nails scratching at the base of her ears and making Blake blush with embarrassment when she purred.

“You’re fine dear, really,” Kali insisted.

Pushing herself up a bit, Blake looked into her mother's eyes and frowned, “Please don’t do that, if you need to talk I’m here, mum.”

Kali sighed, glancing away, “What is there to say? Someone I loved is dead by the hands of someone I hate and it hurts, Blake. I’m stuck on the sidelines with no idea what to do as everything she worked for is torn down one way or another. I’m trapped between my ideals, my loves and my own uncertainty."

Her mother's voice grew faint as she continued. "All Sienna wanted was to protect us, and now, all I can do is grieve and pray she finds peace among our ancestors, she deserves that much.”

Blake nodded, slowly, her head felt heavy as she lay down in a partial hug and asked, “Why wasn’t I ever told about this? She was always so distant, I feel like I barely knew her, but she meant so much to you… Do you want to talk about her?”

Kali continued to stroke her ears and said, “It was our idea to keep it a secret. Believe it or not, even after all we did in the war, our accomplishments weren’t widely known. So when I decided to marry Sienna and Ghira the ceremony was small and private.”

Her mother's voice grew lighter and wistful, but there was a cord of tension running through each word and breath.

“It wasn’t easy to keep my relationship with Ghira hidden after you were born but leading up to that, well…” she shrugged. "Its like I said, Sienna didn’t want to bring a child into a world she felt would only hurt them and on some level, I think she was afraid. Afraid of being vulnerable, or that her duties would keep her away, or her lifestyle would put them in danger. She told me, she said-

“My love, if you wish to bring a child into this world, then know I will support you, love you and protect you always. But I cannot be their mother, you know why, so… I understand if you wish to leave me.”

Kali chuckled, though it came out like a whimper. “I told her to stop being a fool and that I would never leave her. Sienna was as good as her word too. There whenever I needed her, always helpful, loving and protective, just like your father. They even curbed their usual debates to keep me from being stressed.”

Kali looked down at Blake who was watching her mother, mesmerized by the story and the image of the intimidating and stern High Leader being so gentle with her own mother.

“After you were born she helped out as best she could, but always tried to keep some distance, not always successfully. I woke up after a nap to find you climbing all over her cape while she tried to work, you have no idea how offended she looked when I saw that.”

Her mother's laugh was strong and warm, brining a smile to Blake’s face.

Sighing wistfully, Kali continued. “But time passed, and duty called, we began to travel and she kept herself busy with her duties as head of the White Fang’s security. We had good reason to fear assassins, and Sienna was never the most… openly affectionate, not in public at least. So many simply didn’t know, or could only guess. We would have told you one day but then,” Kali’s gaze shifted.

“The assassination,” Blake said.

“Ghiras predecessor, our old master was killed, the police wouldn’t help us and Ghira was replaced. Sienna promised action, justice, safety but Ghira couldn’t stay and I… I couldn't bare going to war again. But I still left you, sure she would look out for you, but Sienna also told me she wouldn’t treat you differently than she would anyone in the White Fang. Given how much she loved our people, I felt that was enough, maybe I was wrong?”

“It's not your fault, or hers either really,” Blake said thinking of Adam. “I’m sure she did her best and… I can see now, why you love her, adore her as much as you do… I wish things were different.”

Kali sighed, “I do too, but nothing can bring back the dead, let alone change the past... I’ll just have to wait a while longer before I see her again. I just hope I have good news for her when I go.”

Blake pulled her mother into a tight hug as tears, too long held back, began to stream down her face again.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I opted to continue this idea and am glad to have turned it into a series, I am expecting to post at least two more oneshots as matters stand. 
> 
> I hope this proved to be an interesting read, as always any feedback, questions or comments are more than welcome! 
> 
> I confess, this series is sort of like a V6 wish list for me XD


End file.
